Emergency surgery

[emmasi]

You leave Rob out of this! *smashes beer bottle against the wall*

[Perry]

You leave Rob out of this! *smashes beer bottle against the wall*

Rob? I didn't mention him... Someone needs to get over this Robbie/Kim obsession it's not going to happen they are STRAIGHT... But we still have Ricus

[emmasi]

The Ramsay St Stalker, that blew up a plane 6 months after The Summer Bay stalker blew up a plane... that turned out to be the long lost evil twin of Paul's son who was masquerading (sp?) as the good twin...

That's Rob - Robert Robinson. He was destined to turn bad with a thoughtless name like that... I liked Rob and Cam

And now you're dissin Robbie and Kim!? Jeez, if you were a woman, I'd slug you -__- (to quote Peter Griffin... if things need to be referenced these days...)

[Perry]

The Ramsay St Stalker, that blew up a plane 6 months after The Summer Bay stalker blew up a plane... that turned out to be the long lost evil twin of Paul's son who was masquerading (sp?) as the good twin...

That's Rob - Robert Robinson. He was destined to turn bad with a thoughtless name like that... I liked Rob and Cam

And now you're dissin Robbie and Kim!? Jeez, if you were a woman, I'd slug you -__- (to quote Peter Griffin... if things need to be referenced these days...)

I knew there was something I was missing, I thought it may have been one of your pop-culture references I don't get because I'm a Vengeance Demon (sorry- I don't think we get through one thread without a Buffy reference Jem). SO your a fan of the Soap-Opera classics? I am too but I draw the line some places.

[emmasi]

The thing is, I'm relatively new to soap operas, so I don't know much about "classics." I have been watching Neighbours forever, but my memory sux so... I just take storylines as they come. When stuff happens on Neighbours and H&A simultaneously, like you said with the plane crashes, then I notice that. I also happened to be watching Days Of Our Lives around then (flatmates are evil) so I didn't miss the similarity between the Salem Stalker and the Summer Bay Stalker, but I drunkenly digress...

Yep, I've had a whole beer and a half! Don't come near me people! I'm dangerous!!

[Perry]

The thing is, I'm relatively new to soap operas, so I don't know much about "classics." I have been watching Neighbours forever, but my memory sux so... I just take storylines as they come. When stuff happens on Neighbours and H&A simultaneously, like you said with the plane crashes, then I notice that. I also happened to be watching Days Of Our Lives around then (flatmates are evil) so I didn't miss the similarity between the Salem Stalker and the Summer Bay Stalker, but I drunkenly digress...

Yep, I've had a whole beer and a half! Don't come near me people! I'm dangerous!!

Well you have demonstrated a good point thanks Jem. Stalkers are Soap-Opera Classics (Or Basics)... It's quite common for Soaps to use them the difference is how you do it. The Salem Serial Killer is a brilliant example as Days was having a major Ratings slump and was really close to being axed. The Salem Serial Killer was brought in to Save the Show and it did. The reason it worked so well was because 'The Killer' wasn't targeting the common Guest Characters or Recurring Characters that nobody cared about... it was targeting the favourites, not even old Mrs Alice Horton was safe. They even killed off Justin Melvey's character The other reason it became successful was the actually Serial Killer turned out to be Marlena who is a long running favourite similar to Irene in H&A. It may be interested to note that other daytime soaps such as General Hospital and Passions(?) had there own 'Serial Killer' a few months later. The Summer Bay Stalker storyline was also popular as it wasn't seen on Australian Drama for years so in alot of people's eyes it seemed 'Original' alot of hype was built and the ratings were huge, so in true soap-rivalry Neighbours had there own version Robert Robinson who was an evil twin masquerading (sp?) as the good twin, the reason that storyline didn't work well I should imagine it speaks for itself. When The Summer Bay Stalker returned the following year it didn't work, why? It wasn't original anymnore. The same thing happened in E Street with Mr Bad a serial killer who painted his face black and white and had a strange 'connection' with his main victim. Mr Bad came at a time where the story was original and the shows ratings rose like crazy. Of course when he returned with a new face (recast) the storyline didn't work as well.

[emmasi]

Damn it. I was writing something and then I pressed the wrong key and lost it >.<

Well, the gist was that I thought the Neighbours "stalker" was handled better because it still has lasting effects. The H&A one, like every other storyline, just didn't seem to mean that much. Days of our lives was able to kill off all their characters because they brought them all back! And they were allowed to have Marlena be the killer because she didn't really kill anyone (and she wasn't herself when she was "committing the crimes" anyway). I think that the only person that really died in that whole storyline was the old guy that Jan and that other chick killed in the bathtub or whatever it was. (I like Jan...) So, my point is, that that H&A didn't live up to their promises because they don't live in the same sort of world that Salem is. Summer Bay is much more based in reality. H&A viewers wouldn't accept a parallel island where all the victims have been living in seclusion and secrecy, just waiting to be rescued back to their "real" lives... Man that was a strange story... and it certainly wouldn't have worked for H&A. The best you could have hoped for was for Peter to wake up from the coma that Sarah put him in, and for the whole stalker saga to all be a dream.

Neighbours on the other hand promised big death and they delivered. Three main characters were wiped out in one hit, and the culprit turned out the be the deranged son of another main. It was pretty awesome, really.

But I guess, as you point out, H&A did do it first, as far as the Australian public is concerned. Zoe was an exceptional character, which helps. Unlike Eve, who was just as run-of-the-mill as Rob, when you talk about the stereotypical villain. Cool, but not really new. Zoe was new - she was fun and friendly and... just great. Eve, not so much, and that's why the second stalker story didn't work in my opinion. Zoe was the character that people loved and were shocked to learn her true nature. Her true nature in itself, ie Eve, isn't that shocking at all - mundane, as far as serial killers go, really. When Eve returned, she did not bring my beloved Zoe back with her, and what is the point in that, I ask you?

Jeez. I'm gonna get some trouble for this... *blames the beer*

[Perry]

Damn it. I was writing something and then I pressed the wrong key and lost it >.<

Oh ****... I hate it when that happens.

Pretty much agree with you a hundred per cent except...

Well, the gist was that I thought the Neighbours "stalker" was handled better because it still has lasting effects. The H&A one, like every other storyline, just didn't seem to mean that much.

Well not in a long running story-arc character development way, but the effect of the storyline upon the audience is lasting which in my opinion is more important. If Neighbours "stalker" was handled better it was because it came after H&A's so therefore meaning it can be improved. "Well H&A had a plane crash but nobody important died so how about with our Plane crash we kill off the Bishop's?"

Days of our lives was able to kill off all their characters because they brought them all back! And they were allowed to have Marlena be the killer because she didn't really kill anyone (and she wasn't herself when she was "committing the crimes" anyway).

I didn't mention that part for this reason, the audience didn't know that it was coming... Even the actors thought they were out of a job. To the audience all their favourites were dead. It was shocking and exciting that a show would do that.

[emmasi]

I want it on record that I prefered the H&A plane crash to the Neighbours one. The H&A plane crash in itself is one of my favourite storylines, and that particular incident DID have lasting effects - Hayley and Kim's relationship, most notably. Robbie and Tash also got back together because of it as well. And let's not forget the little fact that Ric wouldn't be with us now if Leah and Dan hadn't found him out in the bush when they went looking for help! The Summer Bay Stalker storyline as a whole though left me cold. Undoubtedly there were good scenes, but the after effects where thrown away all to quickly. That's a general H&A thing that was going on for a long while there but for such a huge, hyped up storyline, it seemed a bit lame to let it drop like that.

EDIT: Oh crap, I just realised that we've (I've?) turned this into another one of those "Is H&A better than Neighbours?" threads! Sorry!! And don't answer that!!

[Perry]

It started off that way with all the Home and Away comparisons in the article, which I said I was unhappy about but I went on about the Summer Bay Stalker Storyline being better then the Neighbours one because...

But there are a few interesting points in there that may be relevent to the Neighbours Revamp just replace the word "Stalker" with "Storylines" and we're right back on topic. Sorry about going on about this.